We were blindsided by the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a mile-deep recession and finally the once-unthinkable bankruptcy of General Motors, the automaker at the core of Michigan’s economy.

Yet in the “Naughts,” the decade ending this week, in all those years with so many zeroes, seeds of promise were planted in West Michigan.

Some already have blossomed — the Kalamazoo Promise scholarships and revitalized downtown neighborhoods. Others are just now sprouting green shoots, such as Grand Rapids’ new medical school and ventures into alternative energy and life sciences.

“It’s a long-term play,” David Van Andel said about the decades-old effort to reinvent West Michigan’s rust-belt economy.

One of those long-term plays is the Van Andel Institute in downtown Grand Rapids that his father Jay founded. Led by David, the first phase was dedicated as the last decade ended and the second phase a year ago.

The VAI now employs 200 scientists and technicians conducting medical research into cancer and Parkinson Disease.

Investing in health care

It’s not hard to tally a billion dollars in bricks and mortar dedicated to life sciences from Kalamazoo to Muskegon — a new Medical Metro for the millennium’s next decade.

Grand Rapids began talking about a medical school early in the decade. Enough community money was raised to build the $90 million, seven-story Secchia Center at Michigan Street and Int. 196 — “Pill Hill’s” new base for the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine.

Fourth-year student Sarah Mattson of Cedar Springs will be in the first class to graduate.

”We are blown away by the generosity of the community, to put that much money and effort into our education,” said Mattson, 30, a Grand Valley State University grad and Greenville native who once managed a jewelry store. She plans to practice obstetrics and gynecology.

While Mattson is a pioneer, every year after this more newly minted doctors are expected to become acquainted with West Michigan and maybe put down roots, as she plans.

Joining the med school and long-standing Spectrum Health Butterworth along Michigan Street is the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. The most expensive construction project in Grand Rapids, at $286 million, opens this month.

The effort complements Spectrum’s $92 million Lemmen-Holten Cancer Pavilion and the $100 million Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Hospital, both opened this decade.

Not far away, Saint Mary’s Health Center invested $45 million in the Lacks Cancer Center and $60 million in the Hauenstein Center for neuroscience services. Metro Health made a cross-town move from Grand Rapids’ Southeast Side to its new $150 million hospital near M-6 highway in Wyoming.

Medical offices and related development sprouted nearby.

Across the region

The construction is impressive, but “just as important is the intellectual capital coming into the area,” said Birgit Klohs, president of The Right Place economic development agency, ticking off world renowned heart surgeons, top-flight cancer specialists and medical-research stars. Many bring entire staffs bearing their own gold-plated credentials.

Up and down the region, investments in health care were major economic moves.

In Muskegon, Mercy General and Hackley Health sealed their merger in 2008. Mercy General’s parent company, Novi-based Trinity Health, acquired the assets and liabilities of Hackley and gave the entity a new name: Mercy Health Partners.

The goal is to consolidate all acute care services at one of the Muskegon hospitals within a decade.

In Kalamazoo, Bronson Methodist Hospital tore down its aging facility to build a new hospital campus downtown that opened in 2005. The three-phase project, started in the mid-1990s, cost about $175 million.

Since then, Bronson has been part of “the huge redevelopment of downtown,” said Ron Kitchens, head of Southwest Michigan First economic development agency.

Where once the town went dark after 5, he said, “we have 40 restaurants opened now, it’s created a life and energy of its own.”

Life sciences, alternative energy

Even the pullback of one of Kalamazoo’s biggest industries, Pfizer, sowed seeds of rebirth.

Highly trained researchers and scientists did not pack up and leave when major Pfizer labs and offices closed. The community invited them to become entrepreneurs.

“We opened our incubator, Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, within 60 days after the Pfizer announcement,” Kitchens said. “We had our strategies in place and put more than $100 million in equity capital into play.”

Today “we have diversified into 100 smaller companies,” he said, citing examples such as Admetriz, which has 40 employees who do statistical analysis for pharmacy companies.

All of Michigan suffered at the collapse of the Detroit auto industry. Efforts to diversify the economy had to be revved up, to shift into a post-industrial age where knowledge replaced brawn.

In Muskegon, with major employers Brunswick sporting goods and the Sappi paper plant closing for cheaper labor overseas, hundreds were left jobless. Likewise, Kalamazoo, Holland and Grand Rapids manufacturers turned off the lights as the recession deepened.

The region adopted a strategy of investing in alternative energy, from wind to solar to electric car batteries.

Holland convinced Korean LG Chem and American Johnson Controls to invest in new factories to build lighter, longer-lasting lithium ion batteries for the next generation of electric cars such as the new Chevy Volt.

Near Muskegon, a German-owned Fortu battery plant is anticipated.

”We are also working on wind energy and methane gas power,” said Muskegon Mayor Steve Warmington, pointing to GVSU’s Michigan Alternative Energy Center on Muskegon Lake.

Reviving downtowns

But all work and no play ... well, you know how the saying goes.

In Grand Rapids, the $216 million DeVos Place convention center opened in 2003, drawing thousands of conventioneers, filling hotel rooms and the growing number of downtown restaurants.

By 2007, the $100 million JW Marriott rose 23 stories over the Grand River with 337 rooms, the only such deluxe brand in the state welcoming those who want lux treatment.

Later would come the renovation of the adjacent DeVos Performance Hall, the Grand Rapids Ballet’s $63 million Peter Wege Theatre and the announcement of a new Betty Van Andel Opera Center. Super-store patriarch Fred Meijer wrote a check to finance a sparkling renovation of the Grand Rapids Civic Theatre.

But it was the overwhelming success of ArtPrize that stunned the region in 2009. An estimated 200,000 people thronged the downtown streets during a stretch of warm autumn days, eager to see entries by 1,265 artists competing in the $449,000 competition organized by Rick DeVos and financed by his parents Betsy and Dick DeVos. The event was even bigger this fall, with 1,713 entries and bigger crowds.

In Muskegon, developer Jonathan Rooks has been breathing new life into the 11-story Shoreline Inn & Suites and the 114-slip Terrace Point Marina on the shore of Muskegon Lake, just a couple of blocks from downtown. He also bought the former Rafferty’s restaurant at the marina, which has been redone as the Lake House restaurant and conference center.

Promising future

But perhaps no other change yielded more national attention to the region than the Kalamazoo Promise. Beginning in 2005, an anonymous donor has made it possible for tuition to be paid for Kalamazoo Public Schools graduates to attend Michigan state colleges.More than 1,900 grads have received scholarships, starting with the Class of 2006. The Promise has paid $21.3 million in tuition and fees.

About $10 million stayed in town, paying for students to attend Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo Valley Community College, according to former district superintendant and now Promise director Janice Brown.

”I don’t think we have a clue yet how transformative this is going to be,” Brown said in November.

In fact, that phrase works well for the entire region. In a decade with so many ups and downs, transformative is the best way to describe these early years of the new century.